Famous bearer is Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1963 to 1966.

-- Anonymous User 3/26/2006

This name is very rare, and your child will stand alone in his class of Haydens, Kadens, and Aidans if he bears this name. Plus everyone will think you named him after Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all times.

-- Anonymous User 8/9/2006

This name used to be very popular in Germany (especially Bavaria) but it is not anymore.

I'm quite surprised nobody's said anything about Ludwig van Beethoven in the way of famous bearers. He's mostly known as the classical composer who went deaf but still continued to compose his music despite his disability.

Another famous bearer was Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Bavaria. He is famous for his wild imagination and castles, for example Neuschwanstein (which the Disney castle was based on). He was deposed from the throne on grounds of mental illness. After he left on a walk with his doctor, both of their bodies were found floating in Lake Standberg.

-- Anonymous User 7/21/2008

"Ludwig Kakumei" by Yuki Kaori is about a perverted prince (named Ludwig, of course) who searches for a suitable princess to marry, with his childhood servant, Wilhelm. In the beginning he's a necrophiliac. He drops that hobby soon, though. It's an awesome manga XD. And I really like how this name sounds too.

There are actually two German pronunciations of Ludwig. The one listed here (LOOT-vikh) is only used in nothern Germany. In the south - where the name Ludwig was/is more common - it would be pronounced LOOT-vig. [noted -ed]

In Slovakia, if I'm not mistaken, "Ľudovít" is considered a native form of Ludwig. This is also sometimes true for "Ljudevit" in Croatia, even though these two names are clearly Slavic in origin: in both cases the first element is Slavic lyud "people" and the second is Old Slavic vitb "lord, master".

I think Ludwig is often overlooked because it is such an astounding name! I plan on naming my first-born son Ludwig, and family names hyphenated as his middle names.

-- Anonymous User 2/26/2011

Ludwig von Drake, a Disney duck character. Some fans speculate that Ludwig is Scrooge McDuck's brother-in-law through Scrooge's sister Matilda. But Matilda's creator, Don Rosa, has never used Ludwig in any of his stories, and he makes it fairly clear that Matilda never married. If Ludwig is related to the Duck family, it's likely through Daisy Duck, or through Donald's paternal line.

The Slavic forms are probably another example of "folk-etymology"—the assimilation of an unfamiliar name or word (archaic or foreign in origin) to a form more familiar to the speaker. E.g. Celtic Cunorix (hound-king) to Saxon Cyneric (royal-king), or the re-analysis of Staniel (stone-yell-from its cry) to "stand-gale" (from its habit of "standing" in the wind).

The -wig element should probably read as the simpler "fight, battle, war", rather than the derived -wiga "warrior", which has a different form in most of the formation-languages. The root is that of weigh, way, wagon—weg-, wig, wag- carry, move, shake, a cousin of Latin veh- in vehere, carry and vehicle. The sense formation parallels that of -lac move, dance, play, fight.